"It’s been strenuous. But also fun and exciting." That is how Per Dahl characterises the four years (almost) during which he has been the joint union representative for the academic staff (both academic and technical and administrative staff with an academic degree - usually referred to as VIP and AC-TAP respectively) at Aarhus University.

Four intense years

He took up the post in the spring of 2012, the year after the academic development process at AU, and he was also involved in the ‘Koldau case’ (involving a critical professor at Arts, alleged secret meetings and the professor’s resignation, ed.). The round of dismissals at the beginning of 2014 also made demands on the outgoing joint union representative, and led to him receiving the Danish Association of Masters and PhD’s union representative of the year award in 2014. Since then, the degree programme resizing, study progress reform and the government's other research and education cutbacks have kept Per Dahl busy.

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He says of the role of joint union representative:

"Best case scenario is that you have a little bit of influence and help to make a small difference around the university. But it’s the management who are at the centre of things."

If he had to point to where he had some influence, he would say a better process – and not least follow-up – on the psychological workplace assessments. The same is true of the pay negotiations at AU, which he believes have become more transparent. And even though it is not written into AU's strategy and development contract, he also believes that he has succeeded in putting competency development on the agenda.

AU lacks a public forum

But whoever takes over from him faces a number of unresolved issues.

"The biggest problem is that the university lacks a public forum – somewhere with room for reflection and reasoning, where we as employees can discuss conditions at AU. We haven’t resolved that issue and it doesn’t look likely that we will anytime soon.”   

He continues:

"With the study progress reform and the degree programme resizing, we’re going to see more short-term, temporary appointments. There will also be staff reductions, so there is a need to look at how we can ensure proper voluntary redundancy packages and senior staff schemes."

Per Dahl admits that it pains him to give up the position of joint union representative. He will also continue as union representative at Arts until 1 September. At the same time, he is looking forward to having more time for research.

Translated by Peter Lambourne